Korean Expat Community for National Disasters

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Good time of the day! 

I wanted my first-ever post to be helpful to new expats in Korea, especially to the ones who face difficulties in finding Muslim-friendly food. In this post, I will be sharing some places and food options that are HALAL in Chuncheon.

Although finding Halal restaurants is not that hard in other parts of Korea such as Seoul or Busan, in the city where I stay (Chuncheon), there are not many options. Here are the places I tried:

1. Mahasidda Curry (189 Jungnim-dong Chuncheon-si Gangwon-do) is a Halal-certified Indian restaurant that offers delicious food with a spicy kick to it. The staff can speak English and are very friendly. I tried many different dishes, and my favorite is Tandury Chicken. If you have a large company, I recommend ordering a set, so you get to try a wide variety in one go.

2. Musafir (333-48 Hyoja-dong Chuncheon-si Gangwon-do) is an Uzbek restaurant near Kangwon National University. The place is quite small and humble, but the food is mouthwatering. On the day we went, the owner was treating every guest with palov (Uzbek national dish) in honor of the Holy month of Ramadan, so we left the house feeling grateful with full stomachs and unspent money. By the way, you can also buy Uzbek, and Kazak products such as halal sausages, cheese, butter, and sweets there.

3. Kebab House (617-10 Hyoja-dong Chuncheon-si Gangwon-do) is a Turkish restaurant located near KNU as well. It offers various kebabs with lamb, chicken, and beef.

4. Chuncheon San Soke Spicy Stir-fried Chicken (445 Onui-dong Chuncheon-si Gangwon-do). Chuncheon is well-known for its dakgalbi – spicy stir-fried chicken, and as you guessed, here you can try it halal. They fry it for you right on the table. Make sure to wear an apron, if you don’t want any oil stains on your clothes.

Besides Halal-certified restaurants, you can find a lot of places that make sushi, fish steak, seafood burgers, and pasta, vegetarian pasta or mandu (dumplings), bibimbap (but make sure there is no meat in it before buying. If there is, you can simply ask to remove it), vegetable or tuna kimbap (again, ask if any other meat in there).

It was hard for me to adapt to a new diet at first, especially coming from a country where meat is consumed heavily. However, now that I have a growing list of options, I feel relaxed and can focus on other things rather than thinking about what to eat. I hope you can find your desired eating places too.